Greetings everyone, my name is Dan and I am a practitioner from Montreal, Canada. I have been practicing Falun Dafa for close to 5 months now. I find it quite remarkable that I am here in Geneva today: as a student, very little money is usually available for other things, after tuition and living expenses are paid. This year, though, after calculating my budget again in January, I was very surprised to find a considerable surplus and I wondered what to do with it: I considered various things, but they were all serving interests and desires. When I heard about other practitioners going to Geneva, I knew that it had all been arranged by Master Li, and that the money was meant to finance my trip! In addition, my professors had no problems with my absence for a week and were indeed interested in the conference after I told them what it was about. And so, I am here.
When I was very young I had a dream, in which I went to the top of a mountain and there was a very old Oriental man there: he told me that I was here to help people. As I grew older I forgot about it, until I was reminded by my mother some years later. I felt it was indeed significant, but I never understood exactly how I was to help people. I always made myself helpful in small things, but this never seemed to truly be what I needed to do. As a teenager I was very lost and unhappy, not really able to fit in anywhere. However, last year, I started to change a lot: I stopped smoking, drinking and using drugs, but too late to salvage my semester at McGill, and I failed every course.
I went back to British Columbia where I had gone to high school, and many tribulations and tests manifested in the summer. I had two 'passing-by masters' who imparted some good things to me, and I evolved further: I came to the realization-or perhaps remembrance?-that spiritual cultivation was the most pressing matter, the number one priority in my life. Yet, by the end of summer, I had not found my path. I was in crisis, and even seriously considered going to the Himalayas to seek a genuine master! I asked the higher powers to guide me to where I needed to go, and I was readmitted to McGill on probationary standing. Thus, I returned to Montreal; but I was in crisis as it felt to me that I had made such a long voyage physically, emotionally, and spiritually, yet I was back where I started.
Six weeks into the semester I found Falun Dafa, and when I went to attend the first lecture I knew I had found the path that I had been looking for. Through studying the Fa and working on Xinxing, my understanding of Dafa grows deeper day by day. My health has been perfect since starting Falun Dafa, and even though I stopped weight training, skateboarding and other forms of physical exercise, my body has not lost or gained weight, has maintained physical strength, and is indeed light and free of illnesses!
My studies in university are better than ever, and my ability of concentration, time management, and motivation are all improved. The more attachments I let go of, the calmer my mind becomes and I find that those things I did in the past to seek comforts and happiness were all delusion: as I let them go, I find more and more true peace and joy. My moral standard has been raised as well, and I have let go of many bad behaviors I practiced in the past. I promote the Fa to all my friends and relatives, as well as strangers, knowing in my heart that, until achieving the consummation, it is the only way to truly help them. As to whether the old man in my dream was Master Li, I do not know. But I do know that, in the midst of the mud full of filthy things, I have found the only gem. This Dafa is most precious.
Thank you.
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Category: Improving Oneself
